Lee S.

Shulman

Signature pedagogies in the professions

The psychoanalyst Erik Erikson once sions. Thus, in medicine many years are
observed that if you wish to understand spent learning to perform like a physi-
a culture, study its nurseries. There cian; medical schools typically put less
is a similar principle for the understand- emphasis on learning how to act with
ing of professions: if you wish to under- professional integrity and caring. In
stand why professions develop as they contrast, most legal education involves
do, study their nurseries, in this case, learning to think like a lawyer; law
their forms of professional preparation. schools show little concern for learn-
When you do, you will generally detect ing to perform like one.
the characteristic forms of teaching and We all intuitively know what signature
learning that I have come to call signature pedagogies are. These are the forms of
pedagogies. These are types of teaching instruction that leap to mind when we
that organize the fundamental ways in ½rst think about the preparation of
which future practitioners are educated members of particular professions–for
for their new professions. In these signa- example, in the law, the quasi-Socratic
ture pedagogies, the novices are instruct- interactions so vividly portrayed in The
ed in critical aspects of the three funda- Paper Chase. The ½rst year of law school
mental dimensions of professional work is dominated by the case dialogue meth-
–to think, to perform, and to act with integ- od of teaching, in which an authoritative
rity. But these three dimensions do not and often authoritarian instructor en-
receive equal attention across the profes- gages individual students in a large class
of many dozens in dialogue about an ap-
Lee S. Shulman, a Fellow of the American Acade- pellate court case of some complexity. In
my since 2002, is president of the Carnegie Foun- medicine, we immediately think of the
dation for the Advancement of Teaching and phenomenon of bedside teaching, in
Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education which a senior physician or a resident
Emeritus at Stanford University. His latest books leads a group of novices through the dai-
are “Teaching as Community Property: Essays ly clinical rounds, engaging them in dis-
on Higher Education” (2004) and “The Wisdom cussions about the diagnosis and man-
of Practice: Essays on Teaching, Learning, and agement of patients’ diseases.
Learning to Teach” (2004). I would argue that such pedagogical
signatures can teach us a lot about the
© 2005 by the American Academy of Arts personalities, dispositions, and cultures
& Sciences

52 Dædalus Summer 2005

of their ½elds. And though signature students. The instructor, clearly visible Signature
pedagogies operate at all levels of educa- behind the lectern, is at the center of the pedagogies
in the
tion, I ½nd that professions are more long side of the rectangle. Rather than professions
likely than the other academic disci- lecturing, he tends to ask questions of
plines to develop distinctively interest- one student at a time, chasing the initial
ing ones. That is because professional question with a string of follow-ups. At
schools face a singular challenge: their certain points, he will turn his attention
pedagogies must measure up to the stan- to another student, and stick with her
dards not just of the academy, but also of for a while. Again and again he asks a
the particular professions. Professional student to read aloud the precise word-
education is not education for under- ing of a contract or legal ruling; when
standing alone; it is preparation for ac- confusion arises, he repeatedly asks the
complished and responsible practice in student to look carefully at the language.
the service of others. It is preparation for The instructor may use the board or the
‘good work.’ Professionals must learn overhead projector to record speci½c
abundant amounts of theory and vast phrases, to list legal principles, or to note
bodies of knowledge. They must come the names of court cases or precedents.
to understand in order to act, and they Throughout the hour, the law professor
must act in order to serve. faces the students, interacting with them
In the Carnegie Foundation’s studies individually through exchanges of ques-
of preparation for the professions, we tions and answers, and only occasionally
have gone into considerable depth to writing anything on the board. The stu-
understand the critical role of signature dents can see each other as they partici-
pedagogies in shaping the character of pate, and can respond easily if the pro-
future practice and in symbolizing the fessor solicits additional responses. But
values and hopes of the professions. We it’s relatively rare for students to address
have become increasingly cognizant of one another directly.
the many tensions that surround profes- Now consider a lecture course in flu-
sional preparation, from the competing id dynamics as taught at a typical engi-
demands of academy and profession to neering school. The seats all face the
the essential contradictions inherent in front of the room; discussion among
the multiple roles and expectations for students is apparently not a high prior-
professional practitioners themselves. ity here. Although the teacher faces his
The importance of the particular forms class when he introduces the day’s topic
of teaching that characterize each pro- at the beginning of the session, soon he
fession has become ever more salient in has turned to the blackboard, his back to
the course of our inquiry. Above all, we the students. The focal point of the ped-
have found it fruitful to observe closely agogy is clearly mathematical represen-
the pedagogy of the professions in tations of physical processes. He is furi-
action. ously writing equations on the board,
looking back over his shoulder in the di-
B ehold a ½rst-year class on contracts rection of the students as he asks, of no
one in particular, “Are you with me?”
at a typical law school. Immediately one
notices that the rectangular room is not A couple of af½rmative grunts are suf-
designed like most lecture halls: the 120 ½cient to encourage him to continue.
seats are arranged in a semicircle so that Meanwhile, the students are either writ-
most students can see many of the other ing as furiously as their instructor, or

Dædalus Summer 2005 53

Lee S. they are sitting quietly planning to re- resented by a case record or, these days,
Shulman view the material later in study groups. by a video. There is no question that the
on
professions There is very little exchange between instruction centers on the patient, and
& profes- teacher and students, or between stu- not on medicine in some more abstract
sionals dents. There is almost no reference to sense. The dance changes as we move
the challenges of practice in this teach- from the patient’s ½rst visit to the fol-
ing–little sense of the tension between low-up, but the basic moves remain the
knowing and doing. This is a form of same.
teaching that engineering shares with In the Carnegie Foundation’s studies,
many of the other mathematically inten- we have spent a lot of time observing,
sive disciplines and professions; it is not analyzing, and documenting how teach-
the ‘signature’ of engineering. ing and learning occur in many kinds of
Quite a different classroom style is evi- settings. We not only watch and record,
dent when one visits a design studio that but also meet with faculty members
meets in the same building of the same and students individually and in focus
engineering school. Here students as- groups. We review teaching materials
semble around work areas with physical and the examinations used to evaluate
models or virtual designs on computer the progress of students. To the extent
screens; there is no obvious ‘front’ of the that we identify signature pedagogies,
room. Students are experimenting and we ½nd modes of teaching and learning
collaborating, building things and com- that are not unique to individual teach-
menting on each other’s work without ers, programs, or institutions. Indeed,
the mediation of an instructor. The fo- if there is a signature pedagogy for law,
cal point of instruction is clearly the de- engineering, or medicine, we should
signed artifact. The instructor, whom an be able to ½nd it replicated in nearly all
observer identi½es only with some dif- the institutions that educate in those
½culty, circulates among the work areas domains.
and comments, critiques, challenges, or Signature pedagogies are important
just observes. Instruction and critique precisely because they are pervasive.
are ubiquitous in this setting, and the They implicitly de½ne what counts as
formal instructor is not the only source knowledge in a ½eld and how things be-
for that pedagogy. come known. They de½ne how knowl-
Consider, ½nally, the varieties of bed- edge is analyzed, criticized, accepted,
side teaching and clinical rounds used in or discarded. They de½ne the functions
medical schools. Here the classroom is of expertise in a ½eld, the locus of au-
the hospital, where a clinical triad–the thority, and the privileges of rank and
patient, the senior attending physician, standing. As we have seen, these ped-
and the student physicians–facilitates agogies even determine the architec-
the teaching and learning. Since much tural design of educational institutions,
of medical pedagogy is peer driven, only which in turn serves to perpetuate these
one year of training or experience may approaches.
differentiate the student from her in-
structor. The ritual of case presentation,
pointed questions, exploration of alter-
A signature pedagogy has three di-
mensions. First, it has a surface structure,
native interpretations, working diagno- which consists of concrete, operational
sis, and treatment plan is routine. The acts of teaching and learning, of show-
patient may be physically present or rep- ing and demonstrating, of questioning

54 Dædalus Summer 2005

and answering, of interacting and with- is not black-letter law, as, for example, in Signature
holding, of approaching and withdraw- British law schools, but the processes of pedagogies
in the
ing. Any signature pedagogy also has a analytic reasoning characteristic of legal professions
deep structure, a set of assumptions about thinking. Legal theory is about the con-
how best to impart a certain body of frontation of views and interpretations
knowledge and know-how. And it has an –hence the inherently competitive and
implicit structure, a moral dimension that confrontational character of case dia-
comprises a set of beliefs about profes- logue as pedagogy.
sional attitudes, values, and dispositions. The implicit structure of case dialogue
Finally, each signature pedagogy can al- pedagogy has several features. We ob-
so be characterized by what it is not–by served several interactions in which stu-
the way it is shaped by what it does not dents questioned whether a particular
impart or exemplify. A signature peda- legal judgment was fair to the parties, in
gogy invariably involves a choice, a se- addition to being legally correct. The in-
lection among alternative approaches structor generally responded that they
to training aspiring professionals. That were there to learn the law, not to learn
choice necessarily highlights and sup- what was fair–which was another mat-
ports certain outcomes while, usually ter entirely. This distinction between
unintentionally, failing to address other legal reasoning and moral judgment
important characteristics of professional emerged from the pedagogy as a tacit
performance. principle. Similarly, the often brutal na-
We can see the relevance of all these ture of the exchanges between instruc-
features if we examine, for example, the tor and student imparted in rather stark
signature pedagogy of legal case meth- terms a sense of what legal encounters
ods. This signature pedagogy’s surface entail. These lessons might also be called
structure entails a set of dialogues that are the hidden curriculum of case dialogue
entirely under the control of an authori- pedagogy.
tative teacher; nearly all exchanges go Finally, we can examine what is miss-
through the teacher, who controls the ing in this signature pedagogy. The miss-
pace and usually drives the questions ing signature here is clinical legal edu-
back to the same student a number of cation–the pedagogies of practice and
times. The discussion centers on the performance. While these pedagogies
law, as embodied in a set of texts rang- can be found in all law schools, they are
ing from judicial opinions that serve as typically on the margins of the enter-
precedents, to contracts, testimonies, prise, are rarely required, and are often
settlements, and regulations; in the legal ungraded.
principles that organize and are exem- I would also call our attention to three
pli½ed by the texts; and in the expecta- typical temporal patterns of signature
tion that students know the law and are pedagogies in the professions: the per-
capable of engaging in intensive verbal vasive initial pedagogy that frames and
duels with the teacher as they wrestle to pre½gures professional preparation, as
discern the facts of the case and the prin- in the law; the pervasive capstone ap-
ciples of its interpretation. prenticeships, as in the clinical bedside
The deep structure of the pedagogy rests teaching of medicine or in the compara-
on the assertion that what is really being tively brief period of student teaching in
taught is the theory of the law and how teacher education; and the sequenced
to think like a lawyer. The subject matter and balanced portfolio, as in the medley

Dædalus Summer 2005 55

Lee S. of analysis courses, laboratories, and education routines also develop habits
Shulman design studios in engineering, or in the of the heart, and clinical education rou-
on
professions interaction of hermeneutic, liturgical, tines develop habits of the hand.
& profes- homiletic, and pastoral pedagogies in Pedagogies that bridge theory and
sionals the education of clergy. practice are never simple. They entail
highly complex performances of obser-
Up to this point, I have emphasized the vation and analysis, reading and inter-
pretation, question and answer, conjec-
distinctive characteristics of signature
pedagogies–the characteristics by ture and refutation, proposal and re-
which we can tell them apart. In spite sponse, problem and hypothesis, query
of the differences among their surface and evidence, individual invention and
structures, signature pedagogies also collective deliberation. To the extent
share a set of common features. These that the substance of these complex
features may help explain the relative performances changes with each ses-
durability and robustness of these ap- sion, chapter, or patient, the cognitive
proaches to teaching and learning. In- and behavioral demands on both stu-
deed, I believe these features evolved dents and faculty would be overwhelm-
precisely because they facilitate student ing if it were not possible to routinize
learning of professionally valued under- signi½cant components of the pedagogy.
standings, skills, and dispositions. Enu- To put it simply, signature pedagogies
merating them will help to explain the simplify the dauntingly complex chal-
persistence and generality of signature lenges of professional education because
pedagogies in the professions. once they are learned and internalized,
First, as observed earlier, signature we don’t have to think about them; we
pedagogies are both pervasive and rou- can think with them. From class to class,
tine, cutting across topics and courses, topic to topic, teacher to teacher, assign-
programs and institutions. Case dia- ment to assignment, the routine of ped-
logue methods in law, for example, are agogical practice cushions the burdens
routinely encountered by law students of higher learning. Habit makes novelty
in nearly all their doctrinal courses– tolerable and surprise sufferable. The
torts, Constitutional law, contracts, civil well-mastered habit shifts new learning
procedure, and criminal. Teachers and into our zones of proximal development,
students can be inventive or creative transforming the impossible into the
within the boundary conditions of these merely dif½cult.
teaching frameworks, but the frame- But habits are both marvelous scaf-
works themselves are quite well de½ned. folds for complex behavior as well as
Of course, everyone understands the dangerous sources of rigidity and perse-
danger of routine, but routine also has veration. Thus we shall also see that the
great virtues. Learning to do complex very utility of habit that is a source of
things in a routine manner permits both signature pedagogies’ power also con-
students and teachers to spend far less tributes to their most serious vulnerabil-
time ½guring out the rules of engage- ity: Signature pedagogies, by forcing all
ment, thereby enabling them to focus kinds of learning to ½t a limited range of
on increasingly complex subject matter. teaching, necessarily distort learning in
Also, the pedagogical routines differ in some manner. They persist even when
purpose: legal education routines devel- they begin to lose their utility, precisely
op habits of the mind, whereas clergy because they are habits with few coun-

56 Dædalus Summer 2005

tervailing forces. Since faculty members herent uncertainty associated with these Signature
in higher education rarely receive direct situations: the direction the discussion pedagogies
in the
preparation to teach, they most often takes is jointly produced by the instruc- professions
model their own teaching after that tor’s plan and the students’ responses,
which they themselves received. This elaborations, and inventions.
‘apprenticeship of observation’ is pow- Indeed, in these signature pedagogies,
erful even among precollegiate teachers students are not only active but interac-
who do undertake pedagogical training. tive. Students are accountable not only
Moreover, since the physical layout of to teachers, but also to peers in their re-
classrooms so typically tracks the prem- sponses, arguments, commentaries, and
ises of a ½eld’s signature pedagogies, the presentations of new data. They are ex-
very architecture of teaching encourages pected to participate actively in the dis-
pedagogical inertia. Only the most radi- cussions, rounds, or constructions; they
cal of new conditions–such as sharp are also expected to make relevant con-
changes in the organization or econom- tributions that respond directly to previ-
ics of professional practice or in the ous exchanges. Signature pedagogies are
technologies of teaching–are suf½cient pedagogies of uncertainty. They render
forces to redirect that inertia. classroom settings unpredictable and
Another feature of signature pedago- surprising, raising the stakes for both
gies is that they nearly always entail pub- students and instructors. Interestingly,
lic student performance. Without stu- learning to deal with uncertainty in the
dents actively performing their roles– classroom models one of the most cru-
as interlocutors in legal dialogues, as cial aspects of professionalism, namely,
student physicians reporting on cases the ability to make judgments under
in clinical rounds, as designers of arti- uncertainty.
facts, or as active critics in the engineer- Finally, uncertainty, visibility, and
ing studio–the instruction simply can’t accountability inevitably raise the emo-
proceed. This emphasis on students’ ac- tional stakes of the pedagogical encoun-
tive performance reduces the most sig- ters. Uncertainty produces both excite-
ni½cant impediments to learning in ment and anxiety. These pedagogies
higher education: passivity, invisibility, create atmospheres of risk taking and
anonymity, and lack of accountability. foreboding, as well as occasions for ex-
The pedagogies command student vigi- hilaration and excitement. Indeed, I
lance, which in turn causes learners to would argue that an absence of emotion-
feel highly visible in the classroom, al investment, even risk and fear, leads
even vulnerable. Again, the case dia- to an absence of intellectual and forma-
logue method will provide our example: tional yield; Alison Davis used to refer to
at any moment the law professor may “adaptive anxiety” as a necessary feature
call on students (the infamous ‘cold of learning. However, teachers must
call’) to answer questions about the case manage levels of anxiety so that teaching
prepared for a given class, or for argu- produces learning rather than paralyzing
ments or counterarguments in discus- the participants with terror. When the
sion of a case. Because so much depends emotional content of learning is well
on student contributions–in dialogue, sustained, we have the real possibility of
in diagnostic work-up, in the design of pedagogies of formation–experiences of
artifacts, in practice teaching, or in ther- teaching and learning that can influence
apeutic encounters–there is also an in- the values, dispositions, and characters

Dædalus Summer 2005 57

Lee S. of those who learn. And when these tion. Teachers can maximize their per-
Shulman experiences are interactive rather than ceived ef½cacy by teaching to the bene-
on
professions individual, when they embody the per- ½t of those students most likely to earn
& profes- vasive culture of learning within a ½eld, high test scores, or can teach in ways
sionals they offer even more opportunity for that equalize educational opportunity
character formation. and emphasize educational ends wheth-
er or not they are externally examined.
Howard Gardner has proposed the Every profession can be characterized
by these inherent tensions, which are
concept of ‘compromised work’ to de-
scribe forms of professional practice in never fully resolved, but which must be
which the fundamental ethical princi- managed and balanced with every ac-
ples of a profession are violated. I would tion. As John Dewey observed about
propose a parallel concept of ‘compro- many of the problems of science, “we
mised pedagogy’ to describe a somewhat don’t solve them; we get over them.”
different phenomenon. Instead of recog- Responsible professional pedagogy must
nizing only the tensions between the address these tensions and provide stu-
technical and the ethical dimensions of dents with the capabilities to deal with
professional learning as those that are them.
regularly compromised, I would argue
that a sound professional pedagogy must Since individual professions adapt to
seek balance, giving adequate attention their own signatures, which, however
to all the dimensions of practice–the effective, are prone to inertia, we can
intellectual, the technical, and the mor- learn a great deal by examining the sig-
al. Pedagogy is compromised whenever nature pedagogies of a variety of pro-
any one of these dimensions is unduly fessions and asking how they might
subordinated to the others–even when improve teaching and learning in pro-
an adequate intellectual preparation is fessions for which they are not now sig-
subordinated to an ethical perspective natures. What might laboratory instruc-
(which rarely happens outside the prep- tion in the sciences learn from examin-
aration of teachers and clergy). ing the studio instruction of architecture
Professional action is often character- and mechanical engineering? How
ized by a tension between acting in the might the challenges of integrating the
service of one’s client and acting in a texts of legal theory and the enactment
manner that protects the public interest of legal practice pro½t from taking seri-
more broadly. Thus lawyers are torn be- ously the clinical education of physi-
tween acting as zealous advocates or as cians, or the learning of homiletic by
of½cers of the court. They can also ex- clergy? The comparative study of signa-
perience the tension between acting in ture pedagogies across professions can
their own self-interest or in the interests offer alternative approaches for improv-
of either their client or the greater socie- ing professional education that might
ty. Engineers can design to reduce costs otherwise not be considered. Indeed, I
and maximize pro½ts, or to increase believe that education in the liberal arts
safety and environmental protection. and sciences can pro½t from careful con-
Physicians can order tests and interven- sideration of the pedagogies of the pro-
tions that maximize the potential bene- fessions.
½ts to their patients, or can act to control I have written about signature pedago-
costs and the likelihood of overprescrip- gies as if they are nearly impossible to

58 Dædalus Summer 2005

change. There are, however, several nitive task analysis, and cognitive ap- Signature
conditions that can trigger substantial prenticeship create opportunities to pedagogies
in the
changes in the signature pedagogies of make substantial changes in that peda- professions
professions. The objective conditions of gogy, and therefore to dramatically mod-
practice may change so much that those ify its signatures.
pedagogies that depend on practice will Finally, severe critiques of the quality
necessarily have to change. A dramatic of professional practice and service,
example is developing in medicine and which occur with great frequency these
nursing: Bedside teaching became these days, can accelerate the pace with which
½elds’ signature pedagogy at a time the most familiar pedagogical habits
when a much larger percentage of pa- might be reevaluated and redesigned.
tients were hospitalized, and for much The ethical scandals that have beset
longer periods of time. Under those con- many professions–well illustrated by
ditions, patients–the teaching material our colleagues in the GoodWork Pro-
for clinical instruction–remained in ject–may create the social conditions
place long enough to provide extended needed to reconsider even the most tra-
teaching opportunities. Today, by con- ditional signature pedagogies.
trast, we ½nd far more medicine and sur- One thing is clear: signature pedago-
gery practiced either as outpatient pro- gies make a difference. They form habits
cedures or with much shorter hospital of the mind, habits of the heart, and
stays. For example, surgical removal of habits of the hand. As Erikson observed
the gallbladder once entailed at least a in the context of nurseries, signature
week’s hospitalization; that procedure is pedagogies pre½gure the cultures of pro-
now done laparoscopically, and patients fessional work and provide the early
do not even remain overnight. Recovery socialization into the practices and val-
now takes a few days instead of several ues of a ½eld. Whether in a lecture hall
weeks. Under these kinds of changing or a lab, in a design studio or a clinical
conditions, the signature pedagogies of setting, the way we teach will shape how
medicine will have to change. professionals behave–and in a society
New technologies of teaching via the so dependent on the quality of its profes-
Internet; Web-based information seek- sionals, that is no small matter.
ing; computer-mediated dialogues; col-
laborations and critiques in the design
studio; powerful representations of
complex and often unavailable exam-
ples of professional reasoning, judg-
ment, and action–all create an oppor-
tunity for reexamining the fundamental
signatures we have so long taken for
granted. In surgery, the signature peda-
gogy for learning new procedures has
been ‘watch one, do one, teach one’–
an approach that is undeniably fraught
with the likelihood of error and signi½-
cant danger to the patient. Now new
forms of simulation, the use of surgical
mannequins and robotlike models, cog-

Dædalus Summer 2005 59